January 2018 Sighting and statistics

This year we are off to a great start with our whale and dolphin sightings here in São Miguel. We operate tours year-round, which is possible here due to the presence of resident species all throughout the year. As well as our residents we also routinely encounter a variety of migratory and occasional species, both during the “high season” and now during the “low season”. During the first month of 2018 we already encountered 7 different whale and dolphin species!

There are not many places in the world where you can encounter so many different species during all months of the year.

Our statistics from January show that the most encountered species was our resident:

• common dolphin (67% sighting frequency);
• bottlenose dolphin (38%)
• sperm whale (29%). 

One more dolphin species was encountered (Risso’s dolphin (10%)) as well as three other whale species (fin whale (14%), humpback whale (10%) and beaked whale (5%)).

Now we are looking forward to seeing what the month of February will bring us.

By: Miranda van der Linde